Kolkata Airport to double self-check-in kiosks

In the next two months, Kolkata’s Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport will have five new self-check-in kiosks.

Currently, the airport has five such self-service kiosks, but in its domestic terminal, which are dated in comparison to what is available at airports worldwide.

“The new machines will be installed within a couple of months. We have got the approval from Delhi,” Kolkata’s airport director Atul Dixit was quoted in The Telegraph India.

The five new self-service kiosks in the international departure hall will have an additional feature that scans passports, which is not present in the existing kiosks. On printing out the boarding pass from the machine, passengers will have to queue up at the baggage-drop counter, where an official will check the printed boarding pass and passport before accepting the bags.

The decision to increase the number of such machines at the airport, albeit late, comes in tandem with airport authorities tackling long check-in queues. The airport handles some 18 million passengers annually. During peak hours, the manned check-in counters inevitably face congestion.

Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Hyderabad have had check-in counters at their international terminals since close to two years.